AN ESSAY BY EUGENE McCARTHY

Ambassadors: Not What They Used to Be

With the clearance of Ambassador Holbrooke to the United Nations,
and of Ambassador Hormel to Luxembourg within recent weeks, the
Clinton Foreign Policy team seems to be in place for the final run to
the finish. Of course, in consequence of changes in communications
and in transportation, it can now be said of ambassadors, as was said
of being a bishop by a clergyman recently, on being passed over for
the higher office, "It's not what it once was."

The United Nations' ambassadorship, for example, originally had
special standing and a special relationship to the Senate, as
distinguished from other ambassadors who were primarily, if not
exclusively, responsible to the President. The first full-time U.N.
ambassador appointed by President Truman, was a Republican senator,
Warren Austin, who resigned from the Senate to take the U.N.
office.

The bi-partisan character was ended when President Eisenhower
appointed a defeated Republican senator, but the Senate relationship,
although watered down, was retained. Adlai Stevenson, who had never
been in the Senate, was next appointed. He made the mistake of
letting himself be made a member of the president's cabinet, thus
increasing the dependency on the President. Stevenson was followed by
a former Supreme Court Justice, without independent political
credentials. The Justice was followed by a succession of
newspapermen, a television commentator, foreign service officers,
etc. -- persons who did not meet the standard of the Chicago
Democratic machine of "not seeing anyone that nobody sent." Holbrooke
falls into that category.

Hormel's nomination was held up on grounds different from those
used against Holbrooke, but of little relevance to ambassadorial
duties in Luxembourg, a kingdom of a little over 400,000 persons, 97
percent of whom are reported to be Roman Catholics. That might make
the office a good listening post, an argument usually made for
sending an ambassador to the Vatican, making good hearing, rather
than religious affiliation, an essential qualification, along with
fluency in Latin or Italian

Campaign financial reform is raising objections to rewarding large
contributors of both hard and soft money. The function of the embassy
as a travelers aid agency or as a negotiator in hostage situations is
being privatized, taken over by persons, like Perot, Jesse Jackson,
Congressman Richardson (now the Secretary of Energy in the Clinton
Cabinet).

There are, however, posts, centers of power bearing on the
national welfare where the U.S. is not represented and at which we
could seek some diplomatic representation, namely the Pentagon, and
the board rooms of major national, international and multi-national
corporations,

Following the example of President Eisenhower in his campaign of
1952, when he promised that if elected he would go to Korea,
Presidential candidates for the Presidency could go to the Pentagon,
and that if rejected, to seek a diplomatic presence.

Bill Gates of Microsoft, recently opened the way to closer
relationships with the Federal government, moved, possibly because he
has not fared well with the Justice Department, by announcing the
hiring of a lobbying firm in Washington to represent his company
interests, the rough equivalent of giving diplomatic representation
to the United States.

Gates follows a long line of great corporations who have operated
in a relationship with government in a form combining Medieval
feudalism and Peronism.

General Motors, for example, has followed the feudal tradition,
with its own financial institutions: it's own welfare and labor
programs, its own retirement and medical program, its own security
system and foreign policy, sustained by what their former president
said when he became Secretary of Defense under President Eisenhower,
that "what was good for GM, was good for the U.S.," or
"vice-versa."

ITT running its own foreign foreign policy in Chile suggested that
the U.S. support it. Their president suggesting that ITT had done
work for the CIA that it was not unreasonable to have the CIA perform
services for ITT.

Tax increases on insurance companies are generally negotiated. And
some 20 or more years ago, Dupont Corporation was ordered to divest
itself of improperly acquired GM stock, although existing anti-trust
laws and penalties were not applied. Congress passed special
legislation to lessen Dupont's burden, and that of its stockholders,
including Yale University and the Episcopal Church.

Defense contracts too are regularly renegotiated.

Resident ambassadors could anticipate trouble and negotiate
settlements in Peron-like arrangement with military and corporate
participants, while first ladies or gentlemen could carry on
Evita-like social work

Editor's Note: This column was filed before the
recent unpleasantness over Sen. Jesse Helms' refusal to consider the
nomination of former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun as ambassador to New
Zealand.